Special Delivery
by SonicLover
Summary: The girls and I are sent on a dangerous mission ... to deliver a pizza? It's more daunting than it sounds, trust me.
1. Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor

05:31 PM - CARLSBAD APARTMENTS  
A pizza delivery man pulled up to the apartment building and entered the lobby. A man at the front desk wearing a trench coat stopped him: "Sir, what are you doing here?"  
"I'm delivering a pizza to Marvin G. Schwartz in the penthouse suite," the delivery man explained.  
"In that case, sir, you'll need to fill out a few forms." The man at the front desk dumped a BIG stack of papers on the counter.

It was two minutes to six before the pizza delivery man was able to fill out all the forms. He then took his pizza and made a dash for the elevator.  
DING! The elevator stopped on the top floor, and the delivery man rushed to the door to the penthouse suite and rang the doorbell.

Marvin G. Schwartz opened the door and looked at his watch. "You took 30 minutes, 28 seconds. Sorry, pal, you lose." He took the pizza.  
Before slamming the door in the man's face, Schwartz showed him a trench coat that he had worn just moments ago. He then helped himself to his pizza, yet another …  
-

Special Delivery

Author's note: I've been toying with this idea for a little while. I've seen it in cartoons, and I think it's time I did this.

-  
Chapter 1: Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor  
-

11:52 AM - BEVERLY HILLS HIGH SCHOOL  
The girls and I were enjoying lunch together. Before I met the girls, I had always eaten my lunch by myself, but I liked the girls enough that I could eat with them willingly.  
Mandy was at the next table. I glanced thoughtfully at her as I planned my next prank. My tradition limited me to only play pranks on her right after a WOOHP mission, but you can never be too prepared.

"It's a pity the cafeteria doesn't offer pizza," Alex said between bites. "I love it!"  
"Wouldn't matter much to me," I countered. "I always bring a bag lunch."  
Neither Sam nor Clover added any comments to the conversation. They probably would have, had they been given the chance. Instead, the table tipped and dropped us through a set of trapdoors.  
Mandy looked over at the table where we had been, and shrugged her shoulders. "I think this cafeteria food is playing jokes on my mind."

We landed in a heap, as usual, in front of Jerry. He smirked. "Girls? Girls and boy? Were you enjoying your lunches?"  
Sam got up. "We were. What's the mission?"

"The mission … is to deliver a pizza."  
This last remark was met with stunned silence, which Clover broke. "Hello? Jerry, we're spies. We handle international incidents, not pizza deliveries!"

"Don't interrupt me, please." Jerry turned and displayed a slide of a pizza joint on the big monitor in back. "This is Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor. It's a very popular pizza place."  
Clover recognized the place. "I saw an ad for that place in the school newsletter! They guarantee a delivery in 30 minutes or less, don't they?"

I was having my own fun. "Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor. Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor. Pince Prete's Pizza- darn it!"  
"Leo, can we focus? Clover is right. Pince Pete's Prizza Par- oh, no, now you have ME doing it. Ahem. Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor guarantees that if the pizza does not arrive in half an hour, the charge for the pizza is cancelled."

Alex spoke next. "I think in cartoons, the people who order pizzas from places like that will do anything they can to force the places to make good on their guarantee."  
"Yes," Jerry responded, "and Marvin G. Schwartz, who lives in the penthouse suite of Carlsbad Apartments, happens to be one of those people. No Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor delivery man has ever thwarted him. Watch."  
Jerry showed slides of Marvin jamming the elevator while a delivery man is inside … hosing down the floor so another delivery man will slip and crash … dressing up as a police officer and arresting yet another delivery man for "improper Italian food carrying procedure."

"Wow," Clover mentioned, "this guy's really serious about getting his free pizza."  
"Yes," Jerry confirmed, "and Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor can't take back their guarantee. They believe that they can discourage Schwartz's hijinks for good if just one pizza can be delivered in time."  
Sam caught on. "And you want us to do that?"

"Precisely. He makes his calls at 5:30 on the dot every Saturday afternoon. At that point, we'll bring you four to the doorstep of Carlsbad Apartments. The pizza will be left in your custody."

"Exactly how is the thirty-minute time limit timed?"  
"It starts the second the caller hangs up, and ends when the pizza is dropped off at the location."

My face suddenly brightened. "Wait, Jerry. I've got an idea. I'll need a volunteer from one of the girls here to play a very important role."  
Clover raised her hand. "Me! Pick me! I want that role!"  
"Very well. Clover, you'll go ahead and spy on Marvin. You should try to figure out what he has planned for us, and possibly stall him as well, while posing as a cleaning lady."

The sound of the words "cleaning lady" shattered Clover's enthusiasm in an instant. "Sigh … okay."

Jerry nodded. "In that case, I'll send you ahead. Be ready at five. You'll all get gadgets, and GLADIS will arrange them in packs to give you with the pizza."  
As Jerry explained, we were to get lipstick lasers (and a ball-point pen for me), heat-sensor 6000 sunglasses, earring communicators (and a WOOHP pencil for my ear), and Ice Queen spray perfume (inhaler).

"You never fail to supply us with the best gadgets," Clover said with confidence. "Well, except for that milk incident, but that's in the past. This is the present."  
(Any fan of my Totally Spies stories will know what "that milk incident" was.)  
"Now, ta-ta, ladies, and Leo as well," Jerry finished. "I'll call you back on Saturday." He sent us back to the school cafeteria.  
-  
Mixed emotions! Wait and find out what's next! 


	2. Let's Begin

Special Delivery

Author's note: I finished "A Redhead's Lunch," so I can work on this story now. I'm anxious to play this through to its end. I usually wait until my regular reviewer, Mat, has reviewed my last chapter before I make the next, but who says I have to do that?

-  
Chapter 2: Let's Begin  
-

Several things happened in the days that led up to Saturday. I became reporter and photographer for the high school newsletter, _Spy Kids._  
Sam aced her history exam, as usual. Alex rented some James Bond videos to watch later that week. Clover and Mandy tied for first place in the local fashion competition - who'd have thought?

Finally, the big day came. I was confident in my plan, and Clover was WOOHP'd ahead.

SATURDAY 05:14 PM - CARLSBAD APARTMENTS PENTHOUSE  
There was a knock at the door. Marvin heard it and, realizing that it couldn't be the pizza delivery because he hadn't even _ordered_ the thing yet, opened the door.  
It was Clover, dressed as a cleaning lady just as I'd requested. "Hello. I'm the cleaning lady. I need to clean up this penthouse immediately. Don't worry, I'll try not to get in your way, and if I do, just let me know."

Marvin permitted Clover to start cleaning. As she went about her business, she struck up a conversation with Marvin. "So, what have you been doing recently?"  
"Oh, the usual," Marvin responded. "It took all week, but I've planned an excellent joke to play on the pizza delivery boy or girl- I don't know which yet- who comes here today."  
"You sure? I hear they've got a new pizza delivery team out that's more skilled than any pizza delivery boy or girl. You'll have a tough time getting by them."  
"I doubt it. The day any pizza delivery person gets the better of me is the day that a blizzard hits the Sahara Desert."

"Well, what have you got planned today?"  
"The works. I'll do everything I can think of. That new team doesn't stand a chance."

About fifteen minutes later, Marvin noticed the time. It was right around 5:30, time to call. He picked up the phone and dialed the number for Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor.

AROUND THAT SAME TIME  
Having been WOOHP'd once again, Sam, Alex, and I "arrived" at Jerry's limo. The license number, WOOHP1, was what gave away its identity to us.  
Our gadget packs were in the back seat. We retrieved them, stopped at Prince Pete's Pizza Prarlor, Pince Prete's, Prince Pete's Prizza, well, that pizza place to get the pizza Marvin ordered, and were driven to Carlsbad Apartments.

At that moment, Clover rung us up on her earring communicator. "Bad news, spies. Marvin's going to give you the works, or so he said. Be prepared for anything."  
"We're ALWAYS prepared for anything," I snapped back. "That's part of being a WOOHP spy."

Jerry remembered something crucial as we rode. He sent a countdown to the girls' X-powders and my "X-DS" that showed us how much of the guaranteed 30 minutes, to the 1/10 second, remained.  
"29 minutes, 38.2 seconds," Alex read. (Henceforth this countdown will be displayed with the all-caps location headings.)

CARLSBAD APARTMENTS - 29:13.3  
Jerry's limo pulled up to the front door. We stepped out wearing our jumpsuits and gadget packs. Alex was carrying the pizza.  
As Alex rushed up to the front door, Sam stopped her. "Wait, Alex. Marvin probably expects us to come that way. Let's use an alternate route. Say, up."

We all activated our jetpack-backpacks and flew up all thirty floors of Carlsbad Apartments to the penthouse floor.

Clover saw us. "Marvin, could you open the window? It's, uh, getting a little stuffy in here. The air is so stale."

Marvin was happy to comply, but not without seeing us. He leaned out the window. "Hello, Miss Green, Miss Orange, and Mister Gray. You must be the new pizza crew. I admit, I certainly didn't expect you three to come up this way. You get points for that."  
Alex smirked. "Really? Well, we have your pizza. Go on, take it."  
"Heh heh heh … Did you really think it would be that easy? I don't think so."

We flinched as Marvin slammed the window shut. Clover opened it again, but Marvin grabbed Clover's spray bottle and knocked Alex away with a blast of cleaning foam. Sam and I quickly joined her.  
"Okay, THAT attempt was a bust," I decided. "Maybe we should just use the front door after all."

Having little choice, we went down to the front door. Alex stopped short of opening it. She faked an entrance, and a trap door opened below. We took a running start and leaped over it.

-  
What's next? Wait to find out! 


	3. Atrium Hijinks and Lobby Laughs

Special Delivery

Author's note; I guess I should continue my habit of updating daily. I've got time to spare. Not enough of it, but I do have time to spare.

-  
Chapter 3: Atrium Hijinks and Lobby Laughs  
-

CARLSBAD APARTMENTS LOBBY - 28:03:2  
As we entered, the lights suddenly died. "The power's out," Sam informed us. "Marvin must've removed a fuse. Looks like using the elevator is out of the question."

A police officer stopped us. "I'm terribly sorry, but there's been a burglary here, and we've closed off the area. I'm afraid I can't let you through."

"You look familiar," I told the officer. "Have we met?"  
"Maybe not, but I've heard of you. Aren't you that new team from Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor?"  
Alex nodded. "Can we get to the stairs? We need to deliver a pizza to Marvin G. Schwartz of the penthouse suite."  
"Sorry, I can't. Like I said, we've closed off the area."

At that moment, Sam recognized the officer in question. She yanked off his hat, and revealed the identity of the officer. This was Marvin. But you knew that, right?  
His disguise spoiled, Marvin fled up the stairs. We tried to follow, but he slammed the door behind him, and Sam got hit by it. By the time we opened it again, Marvin was gone.  
Alex sighed. "Well, so much for that. Let's begin the climb."

As we climbed up the stairs, Sam stopped us. She put on her heat-sensor 6000's and scanned the staircase. "I'm getting a funny reading from that fifth stair. I think Marvin set up a trap."  
I leaned forward and tapped the stair in question with my pencil. A boxing glove shot out of the wall, punching the space in front of me. Had I been on that stair, the glove would've knocked me cold.  
Sam's suspicions were confirmed now. We continued scaling the stairs, stepping OVER that stair, and any other stairs Sam warned us against.

Somewhere around the twelfth floor, we found that Marvin had placed a ceiling through the stairs. How he did that was beyond us, but one thing was for sure: Climbing even one step further was out of the question.  
"We can cross over and use the other staircase," I figured, and we exited to the twelfth-floor hallway.

As it happened, floor 12 was the atrium floor. The whole area was like a big garden. It was almost like an indoor jungle, and the sunlight slanting through the windows against the dead lights added to the feel.  
To boot, Marvin had set up a tape player to play jungle sounds. He apparently wanted us to feel that we were in the middle of a real jungle. It worked.

"Twenty-five minutes, thirty-eight point two seconds," I read from my DS. "Looks like we don't have much time to spare."

Bravely we pressed on. We were stopped cold, however, when a lion met us face to face. It growled menacingly, and apparently had intentions of eating us whole.  
A thought hit me upside the head. "Wait a minute. Since when do lions hang out in the jungle>"

Alex handed me the pizza, rushed the lion, and knocked it over with an uppercut to the chin. Its underside displayed a zipper. Clever, but not clever enough. She unzipped the zipper, and inside was none other than Marvin.  
"That was one impressive lion you got eaten by," I cracked. Marvin fled again, disappearing into the bushes.  
The lion costume Marvin was wearing remained on the ground. Just for a laugh, Sam put it on and growled. I think she scared Alex, though I wasn't really paying attention.

-  
I'll leave it here for now. What'll be next? 


	4. Not a Good Sign

Special Delivery

Author's note: So, same old, same old with Mat. I guess you're running out of things to say.

Chapter 4: Not a Good Sign  
-

CARLSBAD APARTMENTS 12TH FLOOR - 24:18.3  
_My partner and I continued hacking through the dense jungle. I was carrying an important delivery that we had to make in less than half an hour. We had befriended a lion that had been separated from the herd, and it is now journeying with us through …_

"You're not amusing anyone, Crocodile Dundee," Alex told me. "Quit playing around."  
I hung my head. "Aw."

"In any case, we'd better hurry. Who knows what Marvin has planned for us next." Alex and I both put on our heat-sensor 6000 sunglasses so we could better see through the jungle.

Sam, still wearing the lion costume, was beginning to sweat. "I don't see how Marvin could bear this costume. It's really hot in here"  
Drops of sweat formed on Sam's face and ran down her body. And wouldn't you know it, one of them hit her X-powder, short-circuiting it and causing it to malfunction a little.  
Alex and I looked over and saw what was happening. The clothes-changing feature on Sam's X-powder malfunctioned and misfired. Somehow it interacted with her disguise, causing her to transform into a real lion.

I cannot begin to describe how this spectacle would look to the naked eye, let alone through a pair of heat-sensor 6000 infra-red motion-detector sunglasses.  
I'll try to describe how it happened as best I can. The heat signature I knew as Sam's began to pulsate, and then it quickly spread to the rest of the lion costume (which changed in appearance slightly, as it was no longer a costume).  
(I know I mimicked some famous author's writing style in those last two paragraphs. I'm not sure who, though.)

Alex looked at Sam. "Sam? Sam, are you all right?"  
"ROOOOAR!"  
"Wow, what did you have for breakfast this morning, Sam?"

I used my DS to scan Sam. "Alex, I don't think Sam is Sam anymore."  
"Huh?"  
"According to this analysis, she got turned into a lion somehow."

"Well, that's not good. We've got no time to figure out how to reverse it. Come on, Samba."  
"Samba?"  
"Just a little joke. You know, Simba, Samba, with Sam being a lion and all …"

I did not find this pun especially funny. Sam apparently didn't either, but I can't say for sure. That attempt to bite her ankle off could've been just a joke.

"Alex," I finally said, "you go ahead and forage a path. I'll stay with Sam and follow you."

Alex nodded, I climbed on top of Sam, and we proceeded. At that moment, a familiar yell pierced the silence. "AWEYAWEYAWEYAWEYAW!"  
I looked up. There was Marvin, dressed like Tarzan, swinging from a vine. With lightning-quick reflexes, I pulled out my ball-point pen laser and lasered the vine in half.  
CRASH!

I rolled my eyes. "That has got to have been Marvin's most pathetic attempt yet," I decided. We laughed a little, and then continued.

For a moment, the journey was uneventful. Then, my DS beeped, and I answered it. It was Jerry. "Twenty minutes to go, spies," he told us. "How are you doing?"  
"Not as good as we could be," I explained, filling him in on the situation with Sam.  
"Oh, my," Jerry responded. "That can't be good. Hold on, I'll get a lock on her and try to figure out how to undo it. Ta-ta."

Jerry hung up. "Hey, Leo," Alex called as she shoved some more shrubbery aside, "I think we've reached the staircase. Come on, let's go."

Wow, that's got to be something. But is that little turn of events with Sam a set-back, or something else …? 


	5. No Way Up?

Special Delivery

Author's note: I figure, better early than late. That's why I added this chapter so early.

-  
Chapter 5: No Way Up?  
-

CARLSBAD APARTMENTS EAST STAIRCASE - 19:13:9  
We entered the staircase only to find another discouragement: Marvin had placed yet another ceiling to block our way. There was seemingly no way up.  
Resourcefulness is a quality of mine, however, and I spotted our way up in the form of a man who happened to be washing the window just outside the staircase.

Alex opened the window. "Excuse me," she told the startled man, "but we need your platform much more than you do." After making sure the man was safely inside, Alex motioned for us to climb on.  
I climbed through the window to join Alex, still holding the pizza. Even as a lion, Sam somehow managed to fit through the window and settle on the platform. We landed, and I hit the UP button on the platform controls.

The platform stalled.

Alex and I looked at each other, then at Sam. "Whoopsie," Alex said. "I forgot how much two teenagers, a pizza, and a lion can weigh together."  
"No problem," I responded. "You and I can use our jetpack-backpacks to hover just over the platform while Sam rides alone. That way the weight will be fine. I know my physics."

We tried again. This time, the platform went up, up, up, slowly but surely. Thirteenth floor. Fourteenth floor. Fifteenth floor. Sixteenth floor. Seventeenth floor. Eighteenth floor.

Uh-oh! On the nineteenth floor, we hit a disturbance. There was Marvin, peeking out a window on the twenty-first floor. He was holding a pair of wire cutters to one of the cables that held the platform.

Marvin smirked. "Hey, Gray and Yellow! Where's Green?"  
"What care you?" I shot back. "We're the ones who've got the pizza. See?"  
"Ah, I see. Well, I'm afraid I'm going to have to say cut you down. Bye-bye."

Marvin leaned over and cut the cable. At least, he would have, but Clover peeked out of the twenty-second floor window and froze the wire cutters with her Ice Queen perfume.  
As you can imagine, Marvin wasn't happy. "Hey! What business do you have, interfering with my business?"  
"I'm the cleaning lady, remember?" Clover responded. "It's my job to keep things clean. It wouldn't do to let you ruin the sidewalk with lion guts."

Clover and Marvin ducked back inside, and we continued our slow but constant ascent. Twentieth floor. Twenty-first floor. Twenty-second floor. Twenty-third floor.  
On the twenty-fourth floor, Marvin tried to hamper our ascent again. This time, he opened the twenty-third floor window and pushed the platform, tilting it and causing Sam to fall off.

Alex and I both gasped. "SAM!"  
We both dove down on our jetpack-backpacks to catch Sam. Lions are heavy, but somehow we managed to carry Sam together and return her to the platform.  
"That was nearly heart-stopping," I said.  
"I'll say," Alex agreed. "Let's keep going. We've only got fifteen minutes and twenty-eight point three seconds."

Twenty-fifth floor. Twenty-sixth floor. Twenty-seventh floor. Twenty-eighth floor. Twenty-ninth floor. We finally reached the window of Marvin's penthouse suite.  
It wasn't that easy, however. Marvin's window was bolted shut, and reinforced so much that even our lasers couldn't penetrate it.  
Alex sighed. "Darn it! We'll just have to get off at the twenty-ninth floor and go upstairs inside."

I lowered the platform back down to the twenty-ninth floor window, which Alex opened. We reentered the building.

-  
Yeah, yeah, wait to find out what's next, you know how it goes. 


	6. In The Nick of Time

Special Delivery

Author's note: This fic is going to be, I'd say, seven chapters long, plus an episode-finale blurb. Don't know what I'm talking about? Check out the last chapter of "Trouble on Toy Island."

-  
Chapter 6: In The Nick of Time  
-

CARLSBAD APARTMENTS EAST STAIRCASE - 13:28:8  
We regrouped on the twenty-ninth floor of the staircase. "Say, Leo," Alex asked me, "the power's still out. How did the window-washing platform work while the power was out?"  
"Gee, I really didn't stop to consider that," I responded. "I guess it was powered by an external source."

Leaving the subject behind, Alex, Sam, and I all climbed the stairs to the thirtieth floor. Sam seemed to make nice progress, given that she was a lion and the stairs were made for people.

Marvin had not backed down, however. A big barrier of wooden boards completely blocked the doorway. I tried to push it over, but no go.  
I saw the answer, however, in Sam, who charged the barrier and made short work of it. No problems here.

Just as we began to walk down the hallway to Marvin's penthouse, my DS rang again. I got it out and answered the call. "Jerry?"  
"That's who I am. Ten-minute warning. How's Sam?"  
"Let's just say her being a lion isn't all bad."

"Oh. Well, I've figured out the nature of the change. It was caused by a malfunction of the clothes-alteration component of her X-powder, and a reaction between it and the lion costume Sam was wearing at the time."  
"Do tell."  
"A clothes-alteration aimed at Sam will fix her in a snap. Go on, try it."

Alex aimed her X-powder at Sam and pressed a few buttons. In a flash, Sam was back to normal, wearing her green jumpsuit and everything.

Sam looked around. "Oof. I feel like I've been a lion for the last fifteen minutes. What happened?"  
I explained everything to her. At various parts of the story, she seemed excited, then scared, then somewhere in between. It was a little amusing, actually.

"Enough fooling around," Alex told the two of us. "We need to get moving. We've got eight minutes, twelve point seven seconds left to make this delivery."

We dashed down the hall, with Sam carrying the pizza, and were stopped by a janitor. "Sorry, I'm mopping the floor here. You'll have to wait until I'm done," he said.  
I raised an eyebrow. "And under what circumstances do you mop CARPETED floors?"  
"Well … um … erm …"

Sam tackled the janitor. You guessed it; this was Marvin again. He fled back to his penthouse.

As we approached, Alex was about to knock on the door. I stopped her. "Don't, Alex. If you try that approach, there's no way Marvin will let you in. I've got a better idea."

Moments later, Marvin heard a knock at the door. He looked through the peephole and saw a brown-hair police officer with about 16 years of age.  
The officer flashed his police badge. "Is this the residence of Marvin G. Schwartz? I'm here to arrest him on several charges."  
Realizing that this officer was NOT here to deliver a pizza, Marvin let him in. He casually dropped something in the door frame, so the door would get stuck and not latch shut.

Marvin watched as the officer read him a list of offenses. "You're under arrest for impersonating a police officer, using the building's fire hose without permission, damaging the elevator …"  
As the officer continued speaking, Alex quietly slipped in and placed the pizza on Marvin's table. She then left.

"… and on top of it all," the officer finished, "we have dozens of accounts of you abusing and tormenting pizza delivery men from Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor."  
Marvin stuttered to get a word out. "Well, Officer, I-"

Just then, several things happened at the same time. Marvin's grandfather clock began to chime. My DS alarm went off. Sam's and Alex's X-powders sounded alarms as well. The 30-minute time limit had expired.

All of a sudden, Marvin recognized the officer. He had seen him before. The officer was actually me in disguise.  
Marvin laughed. "Well, thought you could fool me, Gray? Well, no such luck. Your pizza team failed to meet the deadline of thirty minutes. And since your pal Yellow was kind enough to leave the pizza on my dining room table right before the expiration, I guess- oh no."  
I retrieved my pencil from its spot in the door frame. "Oh yes. You have finally lost."

-  
The last two chapters will come at the same time, so keep an eye out for them sometime in the near future! 


	7. Nice Work, Spies

Special Delivery

Author's note: Well, now I suppose it's time for another chapter. Ah, I'm glad it's Saturday.

-  
Chapter 7: Nice Work, Spies  
-

06:01 PM - MARVIN'S PENTHOUSE  
A WOOHP helicopter pulled up to the window, and Jerry climbed through. "Nice work, spies. Did you make the delivery on time?"  
"Barely," Sam explained. She then turned to face Marvin. "Are you going to pay or not?"  
Marvin sighed, and took a twenty-dollar bill out of his pocket. "Keep the change. I feel awful."

I smirked. "Oh yeah! Nothing can beat this team of four!"  
"Four?" Marvin blinked. "There was Green, Yellow, and you … who's the fourth?"  
"You'd probably call her Red if you recognized her," Alex responded without a flinch. "Remember the cleaning lady that's been making up your room? She's been in cahoots with us the entire time!"

At that moment, the lights came back on, and Clover entered the room. "Sorry if I interrupted anything, Marvin. I couldn't run the vacuum with the power off, so I got it restored."  
Noticing that the mission was complete, Clover used her X-powder to don her jumpsuit. She then joined us in front of Marvin.

Marvin now felt like a million dollars … in Confederate money. "All my life, and this is the first pizza I've ever actually paid for. Driving pizza deliverers nuts trying to get to me has been so fun."  
He continued. "I spent all my life thinking of new ways to delay pizza deliverers from Prince Pete's Pizza Parlor, just for the free pizza and the expressions on their faces. Now … all those defensive strategies have gone to waste."

Sam's face suddenly lit up. "Hey, wait a moment. Defensive strategies? I've seen that phrase somewhere."  
"You probably saw it on the WOOHP bulletin board," Jerry replied. "I've been looking for a new defense captain. He has to have wits, persistence, and a mind for defensive strategies."

The younger two girls and I caught on in an instant. Clover spoke next. "Yes! Marvin here has a real mind for defensive strategies; I've seen some of them myself."  
"Yeah, and in executing them he showed a lot of wits," Alex added.  
I had to get a word in. "On top of that, when one scheme didn't work against us, he tried another and another. Persistence!"

Jerry raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that Marvin here is just the person we need for our defense captain?"  
"That's EXACTLY what we're saying."

"I see your point, but that's just plain stupidity- it would be like making one of the most dangerous criminals WOOHP has ever captured my personal assistant."  
Clover leaned forward. "Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, Jer, but isn't that exactly what you did when you made GLADIS' CPU from the mind of you-know-who?"  
(If you don't know what Clover's talking about, watch "Evil GLADIS Much?" sometime.)

Finally Jerry agreed to it. Marvin was just as enthusiastic when Jerry offered him the job, especially when he explained that WOOHP serves pizza at all initiation ceremonies.

SUNDAY 09:28 AM - SPIES' NEIGHBORHOOD  
As we were walking down the sidewalk, I heard a sneeze coming from Mandy's house. I had to investigate, so I knocked on the door.  
Mandy's mother answered. "What is it?"

"Is Mandy sick?" I asked.  
"Yes, she is. She came down with a cold."  
"Sorry to hear that. Tell her she can use my inhaler. It might help her feel better."

Saying this, I gave Mandy's mother just what you expected me to give her. When Mandy got the inhaler, she tried it, and got the only case of "frozen windpipe" in the medical history of Beverly Hills.  
It didn't take anything more than a bowl of hot chicken soup to unfreeze Mandy's windpipe. When she could speak again, the first word Mandy was able to get out was: "LEO!"

Meanwhile, a sidewalk tile opened up, causing the girls and I to fall down a chute into the WOOHP lobby. Marvin was just passing through.  
I got up and fetched my pencil from under Clover. "What's the problem, Jerry?"  
"Well, there have been some unusual weather conditions in Sahara. More specifically, a blizzard has been sighted in the middle of the desert."

Marvin nearly choked as he overheard this. (Remember how he bragged to Clover in chapter 2?)

"Oh, by the way," Jerry quickly added, "Marvin is working out quite well with his job as defense captain."  
Sam laughed a little. "I bet he is. I hope he hasn't stalled any pizza deliveries to WOOHP."

At that moment, Marvin approached me. "Hey, Gray- excuse me, Leo, I have to quit doing that- that plan to send Red, I mean, Clover ahead to spy on me was pure genius. I never suspected a thing."  
I smirked. "Well, if there's anything you need to be a WOOHP spy, you need to be able to use careful …"  
-  
THE END (almost!) 


	8. Great Little Blurb from Clover

Special Delivery

Author's note: See what I mean? Both chapters at the same time. This is one of those "episode-finale blurbs" I mentioned. I did one for "Trouble on Toy Island", though I didn't add it for a little while, so you may have missed it. Check it out.

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Great Little Blurb from Clover  
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Marvin's actually a pretty swell guy, though I can't- Leo, could you get the door?

"Sure."

-I can't understand why he would pay for all those disguises and so on but not one pizza. It's ridiculous, I tell you. I mean, what do those pizzas cost? Ten dollars? Twelve dollars? Fifteen?

"Hey, Clover, the pizza's here. The guy says it'll cost twenty dollars, plus tip."

TWENTY DOLLARS? Tell him I won't pay such a ridiculous price.

"He says he can't give us the pizza unless he's paid".

Well, tell him …

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Short, huh? Well, I've told you everything.

What?

You want to know what the last word in that last sentence in the seventh chapter was?

Don't be ridiculous. I've been telling you the whole time. Go back, pull down the chapter selection menu, and see if you can find it. 


End file.
